Hannah Darling 'pretty happy' as Scots produce solid start in Abu Dhabi

Darling, the world No 15, signed for a two-under 70 while Griffiths carded a 71, with the third member of the tartan trio, Lorna McClymont, also giving a good account of herself even though her 73 was the discounted score.

The pleasing morning’s work left the Scots sitting handily-placed in a share of seventh spot, four shots behind leaders Spain and one shot ahead of defending champions Sweden.

Darling, who shone on this stage in Paris 12 months’ ago, opened with six straight pars before following a birdie-2 at the seventh by taking a bogey-6 at the next. A birdie at par-5 tenth was given back straight away before she birdied the 13th and 15th.

“Yeah, it was a bit up and down,” said the Broomieknowe player afterwards. “I didn’t hit some tee shots particularly well but scrambled really well and managed to take my opportunities when they came along and managed to stay pretty calm when I wasn’t in position so pretty happy with the overall score.”

Griffiths, the Scottish champion from Aboyne, Carmen Griffiths mixed three birdies with two bogeys in her effort while Milngavie member McClymont started with a birdie before then dropping shots at the fifth and 11th on a card that otherwise contained solid pars.

“It’s great,” said Darling of the course staging the 30th edition of the Espirito Santo Trophy. “It’s obviously very hot out here, but the course is great. It’s pretty fair. You get what are given to you with the shots you hit.”

The University of South Carolina star added: “I took a while to acclimatise, having come from America, where it’s an eight-hour time difference. That’s quite a lot to handle to start with, but I feel I’m in a good position now.”

Darling, Griffiths and McClymont have been accompanied on the trip by Gillian Paton in her role as team manager and Kathryn Imrie, Scottish Golf’s performance coach.

“We’ve been to the mall - the biggest one in Abu Dhabi - a few times,” said Darling of what the group have been up to away from the golf course. “We also went to the Formula 1 track and we cycled round. I facetimed my dad and I think he was more excited than me, to be honest. That was really cool.”

Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio helped Spain set the pace as she carded a joint-best-of-the-day 68 along with Ireland’s Sara Byrne, Avani Prashanth of India and Japan’s Mamika Shinchi.